Our correspondents across Lagos have observed that some banks’ security guards and policemen do not properly enforce social distancing, as directed by both the Federal and Lagos State Governments, in an effort to curtail the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Flavision has possession of a video taken on Monday, March 30th, 2020, by an amateur cameraman showing Polaris Bank in Adeniran Ogunsanya blatantly disregarding the strict guidelines of social distancing.

Bank security guards are supposed to instill order and ensure that the social distancing directive, amid coronavirus outbreak, is being adhered to by every customer while on the queue to enter the bank. It is their job to eject any disobeying customer, but instead, they turn blind eye and let customers cramp together, just to avoid incurring the wrath of some irksome fellows in the queue.

In the video, customers can be seen standing closely next to each other, with bodies touching and nudging each other, plus some customers shouting at others’ faces. These practices are the main causes of community transmission of coronavirus.

Wikipedia defines and explains “social distancing” as follows:

Social distancing, or physical distancing, is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures taken to prevent the spread of a contagious disease by maintaining a physical distance between people and reducing the number of times people come into close contact with each other. It involves keeping a distance of at least two-metres from others and avoiding gathering together in large groups.

Sadly, bank security guards in Lagos are not making sure that customers who visit their banks during this surge period adhere to the rule of “keeping a distance of at least two metres from others”. What they’re doing is helping deadly infectious diseases like coronavirus to easily transmit from-person-to-person, thereby defeating any government’s effort to combat it.

View the amateur video below taken at one of Polaris Bank’s branches in Lagos:

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.